Awake and Aware

...all mystics-Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion - are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.-- (Anthony Demello, Awareness)

It is said that soon after his enlightenment the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by the Buddha's extraordinary radiance and peaceful presence. The man stopped and asked, "My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?" "No, "said the Buddha."Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard?" Again, the Buddha answered, "No." "Well, my friend, then what are you?" The Buddha replied, "I am awake."

According to Anthony Demello, "Being awake means being aware." Most of the time, we really are not aware, meaning our eyes are not fully open to see what is really going on around us and within us. We have eyes, but we don't see, as Jesus put it. What we see is our conditioned and programmed version of reality colored by imperfect perceptions, prejudices, fears, judgments, concepts, and labels that taint the plain truth of what lies before us and within us.

A concept or label omits something that is precious and unique that is only found in unfiltered reality. The great Indian sage, Krishnamurti recognized the costs of languaging reality when he said, "The day you teach the child the name of the bird, the child will never see that bird again." Before the child has the word for this creature it observes its uniqueness and takes in its variety of color, shape, movements, behavior with open curiosity. Once the child is given the name for this creature, it will readily name the next sighting and cease to observe with the same open perception.

Our awakening to greater God consciousness is a sowing and reaping process; of more of this and less of that. We awaken through acquisition of experience, and by letting go of conditioned mind patterns. This is what Jesus referred to as the need to "become as little children" in order to enter the kingdom. We learn to label in order to comprehend and communicate about our world, and we must abandon those labels if we wish to fully embrace and enjoy our world.

Because we are spiritual beings in a physical universe, we have the innate capacity to witness our reality in a present, aware state of mind. We are in the world but not of it when our awareness of life takes precedence over our reactions to life. When I can remain aware of the part of me that observes my life experiences, I remain connected to the part of me that is spacious, changeless, and invulnerable. Then whether I gain (or lose) the whole world, I do not lose my soul sense. I am not carried away by victory or upended by defeat. I am able to stay centered in the big picture, able to recognize the interconnectedness of life, and awake to infinite possibilities. In this aware state, I am more likely to meet life situations with curiosity, resourcefulness, and creativity. I am more likely to conclude that despite all appearances, all is well.

Sow What?

Every man's world picture is and always remains a construct of his mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence.

Erwin Schrodinger, Quantum Physicist

On this first day of spring, I have been enjoying the warm sun while lounging in the backyard (somebody has to work this way), musing about this message.

These weekly messages, like all the greenery around me, start with a seed of an idea. I have frequently started writing willy-nilly; hoping that out of the flood of disjointed thoughts and feelings, a nugget of inspirational clarity will drop out and show me the course to pursue. This sometimes works, but more often these days, I open my mind and heart like a sail and wait patiently for the winds of inspiration to set a course and get me moving.

As every writer and sailor knows, there are times when you are "dead in the water" and you must sit waiting patiently for something to fill your sails. The winds always return, thank God. But the mind can begin to haunt when "too much time" has elapsed with no progress to show for it. All too frequently when this happens I'll begin to run an old inner tape about inadequacy, "who do I think I am trying to write when I can't even begin", or even more horrifically, "I'm empty!” Then I need to do some quick self-therapy or my sails will remain limp for a very long time.

That therapy comes from our innate capacity to choose how we construct our world with whatever is before us. Our surface mind tells us that we see the world as it is, and the quality of our experience is dependent on the quality of our circumstances. You may recognize this perspective. It's the victim mentality, the world determines my experience. Yet wisdom teaches us that we are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we see the world. Quantum science corroborates asserting that there is no objective reality out there, apart from our perception of it. Shakespeare recognized it too when he said, Nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Jesus said Do not judge by appearances but judge by righteous judgment.

You and I have a whole committee (of thoughts) in our heads who willingly and forcefully chime in with a host of preprogrammed opinions about what any particular situation says about us, or other people, or the way the world is, etc. None of these opinions are based on Truth, all based upon past conditioning, almost always fear based perceptions that bear witness to a world of suffering, limitation, and I'll never be good enough.

Like the dandelions in my yard, they all started as seeds and if allowed to remain embedded in the soil of my consciousness, will flower into full-blown neuroses, or worse. The way we can deal with these errant seed thoughts is not identify with them. It takes awareness, to recognize that I'm thinking poorly about myself, and an even deeper awareness to notice that I am not my thoughts! I have thoughts, but my true self, the I of me, the one who observes the thoughts, is not those thoughts. If I do not attach my sense of self to those thoughts, I remain free, I remain creative. I am able to construct my world in the best possible light. This is what Jesus referred to as righteous judgment.

What we sow, we reap. It's a law of life that will not be mocked. We can however be conscious in our planting practices this spring, sowing and nurturing only the most nourishing thoughts that reflect our God given nature. No, it won't always be easy. But the difficulty will be well worth the effort when we're enjoying the sweet fruit at harvest.

Building Your Trust Fund

I once saw a cartoon entitled, "mastery" that showed a man standing in the middle of a one-way street, cars whizzing past him, while he pointed in the direction that the traffic was moving. A bystander provided the caption that read, "He even controls the flow of the traffic!"

The enlightened ones are the ones who point in the direction that life moves, and in the absence of resistance discover ease and grace in the way things are. The rest of us make a stand against the flow of life, argue for what should be happening, and are run over or run through by the isness of life that we oppose.

We may know better but we resist this wisdom. We find it hard to go with the flow and trust in this world. No matter how many admonitions and parables exhorting the value of the path of least resistance, never mind the track marks evidencing the consequences of standing against the flow, somehow our faith fails to assure us that the universe will operate without our control.

Jesus had a lot to worry about in his time, and yet he preached, "Do not worry." I doubt Jesus had a healthy pension, or even a stocked pantry, and we know he had some serious enemies. He had some very good reasons to worry, but he did not worry. How was he able to respond to the lack of outer assurances with confidence, ease and grace? Answer: He had a big Trust fund. He truly knew the source of his well-being, and found true security in the invisible and very real Spirit of life within him. He was identified with an indwelling Father, who knew his needs before he asked and whose pleasure it was to fulfill them.

Jesus was not in denial about the difficulties of life and we know he had his preferences (remember the Gethsemane cup moment) but he could see beyond the appearances, and trusted more in the Greater Good than his personal will. He could see beyond a fallow field, to a harvest; beyond evil ways to ignorance; beyond death to life eternal.

You and I have the same indwelling Father to rely upon. Jesus did not have a bigger God than we do. He had a bigger faith, a bigger trust fund. The potential for us to live in trust is equal to Jesus. We can begin in small ways to release the opposition in us, to relax and let go in small things. As we let go of the wheel and discover how a
GPS (God Positioning System) works (independent of us) in the minor excursions through life, we will begin to build trust for the major journeys.

As every farmer knows, the real magic in the field is beyond his control. He can plant the seed, but the earth bestows. There is a Life force that conspires for our good; that knows what makes us grow, thrive and prosper. The more we can trust it to work through our lives the more we will witness the ease and grace of life flowing through us. This is the path of mastery.

Opening to the Path

During these difficult economic times, many people are going through experiences leaving them feeling sad, angry, depressed and fearful. What is the relationship between the events and a person's experience? Our ordinary human perceptions would say that the events caused our experience wouldn't we? It seems relational, logical, and symbiotic. We don't allow for any intervening process. But the fact is that we never directly experience the world around us. All we ever know are the contents of consciousness, the thoughts, feelings, perceptions and sensations that appear in our mind.

It is so easy to turn outer events and circumstances into stories with meaning for us, that then takes the place of the "facts." So what can we do when life gets really hard, and there is no ready fix in sight. How can we manage our inner world so that we are not victims of an awful story.

Our forgetful self, the part of us that feels cut off from God, tells stories that bear witness to lack, personal limitations, that we are alone, and isolated in our own private hell, facing the challenges of life that seem insurmountable. In this story, we are victims of the world. Events and others are seen as against us. Life is a battleground. We feel like strangers in a strange land.

Wisdom calls us to re-examine in a moment of awareness, the stories we have been telling; calls us to reconcile what has been for Truth . It is more than getting the facts straight to decide if a story is worth repeating. It is the context in which we remember the story, the macro perspective that can give transcendent purpose to the events in our lives. When the story we tell is life affirming, rife with hope, meaning, possibility and connection, its re-telling can liberate us from our suffering.

This story was alive and well at the time of Jesus' ministry. He would frequently remind the people that there was another viewpoint worth considering. Repeatedly Jesus said, "You have heard it said ___(conventional wisdom of the time) but I say to you___(The greater truth) He invited the forgetful people of his time, which is equally applicable to us today, to see from an enlightened perspective.

Jesus modeled the dual nature of being as he fully embraced his humanity, and fully expressed his Spirit. That is our slogan at Unity Center of Davis, embracing the human, expressing the Spirit. It encapsulates for us the parallel purpose as described by every spiritual master; being in the world, present to our physicality, human needs, honoring our embodiment, people, circumstances and conditions, while always seeking to realize, experience, and express the Greater I, that I am (we are). It is the path of being fully human and fully divine, walking in partnership, in which the human stuff is a vehicle through which the Divine is expressed.

As a master teacher of Life Jesus was aware of the human condition and was compassionate to those who suffered. His ministry emanated from both his human eyesight and his spiritual vision. He had a personal transformative relationship with God. He awakened to discover an indwelling God, that good is everywhere present, that the Spirit of the living God indwells everybody, and there is a power in us that overcomes anything. The only truthful story going on is that Spirit is seeking to reveal itself; that our souls are here to heal and grow. Every other story is just a human interpretation of a sacred event.

Who Do You Say I Am?

Everyone you question, has a different tale to tell
Some say I don't know him, some say I know him well
Some say he's a prophet
Some say his presence gives vision to the blind
Some say I never met him, still he's a friend of mine
Some say I don't' know him, some say I know him well
Everyone who sees him sees whatever they desire
Some say crucify him, some say he cannot die,
Some say he lives forever within the heart and mind

Oh what the others have to say has never been concern for me
For it's the word of God alone, that always sets me free
And it is faith in God alone that brings eternal life
By faith I am persuaded my brother is the Christ and what about you
What about you
What about you
Who do you say I am

(Lyrics excerpted from Who Do You Say I Am, by Carlos and Johnny)

Who is Jesus, and why does it matter? This Sunday we begin a new series entitled, Jesus and the Awakening to God Consciousness based upon the book, The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra.

Chopra makes the case that there are three distinct images of Jesus. The first is the Jesus of history, that is, Jesus, the man who walked the earth 2000+ years ago. Second is the Jesus of the traditional Christian faith that Chopra says was appropriated by the Church, esteemed as God's only begotten son who died for humanity's salvation. The third Jesus, which is the one the book and our series is about, is the "Christ" who Chopra asserts we cannot-and must not- ignore."

In Unity, we do not ignore the Christ. It is central to our belief in the Divinity that indwells all humankind. While we recognize the Divinity in Jesus, and acknowledge his mastery in awareness and exemplification of his divine nature, we see him as the great example,
not the great exception. We see Jesus as one who clearly saw the path of spiritual awakening and took it all the way to his enlightenment, leaving us a way to follow that we might also come to know what he knew. Of course, this interpretation is radically different from traditional Christian doctrine, yet it is merely a logical extension of our belief in Oneness. Because we hold the view that there is only one presence and power that is in all, and through all, expressing its fullness at every point in space and time, it follows that It must also be in us. The omnipresence of spirit allows for an individualized expression of God, which is the Christ in you and me.

When Jesus asked his disciple Peter, Who do you say I am, he was inviting Peter to look beyond the human form, the fleshly appearance before him, the story about him, and behold his true nature. This invitation is ours as well.

Jesus knew he was the light of the world, and said you are the light of the world as well. His life teachings and demonstrations were rooted in an almost unfathomable, unflinching depth of love beyond human comprehension. The depth of his love and devotion to God was equaled in his love for everybody he met, friend, stranger or crucifier. He beheld the Christ in everyone he met, and called forth their hidden perfections, resulting in extraordinary transformations of body, mind and spirit. This kind of love, so pure that it fosters a kind of immaculate perception, did not die with Jesus. It is as viable, vital and relevant as ever. To those who can look through this lens of love today can still restore sight to the blind, reclaim hope to the lost, and bring peace to our world.

Aloha, On Earth As In Heaven

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions when one can no longer see, one can at least still know. ~ Rene Dumal

Denese and I have just "come down from the summit", that is, we have just returned from 10 glorious days and nights on the beautiful island of Maui. Since returning we have been trying to re-enter reality (small r)--- emptying the sand from our shoes, while grasping at the memories of the blissful moments we shared while away.

We are filled with gratitude for the privilege of this time away, and truly feel refreshed at many levels. Humanly, we are dealing with some re-entry discomfort, as we quickly recognize the challenge of generating and maintaining the peace, joy and loving energy that bubbled up in us so effortlessly on the island.

Maui is shameless in its unbridled seduction of the senses. It's hard to not take all the exhilarating beauty very personally. When every wave that breaks upon the shore feels like it was designed just to soothe you into peaceful surrender, and every brilliant flower seems commissioned by your vision of beauty and every bird song the melody that soothes your mind, separation does not come easy. When each breeze caresses your face like a mother's embrace, and each sunset makes the heart burst with the majesty of a palette of infinite color and beauty, one does not depart easily. As you can tell as I wax on poetically about our time away, that we really were carried away, and thoroughly blissed out.

Now we have returned, and the message for us, and you, this Sunday is how it is possible to generate those feelings on the mainland where we live and move and do our work. The ego mind would have us cling to the notion that Maui is the place for our peace, and the land of our love, and the island of our joy. We can be seduced by that illusion, or we can return to the Truth that assures us that all that we experienced in Maui was an inner response to outer conditions. Herein lies the key to heaven, in our response-ability. Every master has revealed that this key is within our reach and accessible to all who are willing to return home mindfully and open heartedly.

The End Of Suffering

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. - Zen quote

Why do we suffer? Some would say, It 's the bane of human existence. Some would say it's the life of punishment we earned for something that Eve did with an apple a long time ago. Some would say that it is God's way of testing our faith (remember the story of Job in the bible?)

One of my favorite spiritual teachers, Byron Katie, who cuts right through the dogma with laser clarity and insight, says, the only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end, the cat will look up at you and say, "Meow." Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless. You can spend the rest of your life trying to teach a cat to bark.

Why in the world do we argue with "what is", why do we cling with stubborn tenacity to our preferences for how life should and could be and resist everything that shows up that does not match our desires. To resist life's twists and turns that deviate from our preferences is the way of suffering; clearly counterproductive to the way of peace and enduring happiness. Wisdom implores us embrace life on its terms, with the equanimity of one who chose all that arises.

This is fundamental understanding in Buddhism. The Buddha's first discourse following his enlightenment contained the Four Noble Truths, the first of which stated that life is, or leads to, suffering (dukkha) in one way or another. Our suffering is said to be caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds, clinging to a certain sense of self, or to the things, people, or circumstances that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.

Jesus taught from the same well of wisdom, imploring us to avoid judgments based on appearances, dualistic thinking, and clinging to things of the world. Jesus noted that rain falls on the just and the unjust, that a man was born blind not as karmic comeuppance, rather to bear witness to a greater reality through him. In this greater reality, (that he called the kingdom of heaven), we will find a lasting treasure that does not deflate or disappoint.

Buddha did not leave us without an answer to the inevitable suffering of the human condition. The Fourth Noble Truth says there is a way out of suffering, a path to help us develop insight into the nature of things and to eradicate greed, hatred, and delusion.